An American warship within the Caribbean navigated into waters the United States Navy says are illegitimately claimed by Caracas.
A United States Navy ship has navigated near the Venezuelan coast in what the US military's Southern Command (SOUTHCOM) called a "freedom of navigation operation," each day after a cargo vessel from the US foe Iran docked at a port of the South American country.
In a post on its website, SOUTHCOM said the USS Nitze, a missile destroyer, sailed in a neighborhood outside Venezuela's body of water - which extend some 12 nautical miles (22km) from its coasts - but within a neighborhood, the Venezuelan government "falsely claims to possess control over".
"The us will still fly, sail and operate wherever law of nations allows, preserving the rights, freedoms and lawful use of the ocean and airspace bound to all nations," Admiral Craig Faller, SOUTHCOM commander, said within the statement on Tuesday.
A spokesman told AFP that an identical operation had taken place in January.
The move comes after the Trump administration in April said it had been deploying more US military assets to the Caribbean, partially to disrupt alleged narcotics shipments by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a socialist viewed as illegitimate by the US and dozens of other mostly Western countries.
With US sanctions on its key refining industry leaving Venezuela increasingly isolated, Maduro last month turned to Iran - another country under heavy US sanctions - for fuel shipments. Washington said it had been considering a response to those shipments, but took no action.
On Monday, the Iranian-flagged cargo vessel Golsan docked within the Venezuelan port of Los Angeles Guaira carrying what Iran's Embassy in Caracas said was food to provide the South American nation's first Iranian supermarket. There was no indication that the Golsan and Nitze confronted one another.
Neither Venezuela's information ministry nor its armed forces' press office immediately skilled requests for comment.
President Donald Trump has insisted that each one option is on the table to get rid of Maduro, but US officials have made clear there's little appetite for a military unit.
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